Thursday, July 15, 2010

A Snippet on Prayer and Suffering

The fact that we have Christians who pray to god for their every need and starving children that are dying by the hundreds of thousands began to cause some cognitive dissonance within my mind. I began to wonder what the point of praying was, or how confident I should be in my prayer life, when there are children stretching the globe who are malnourished, abused and left for dead. Should I really think that god cares about my seemingly minute problems when he lacks compassion for children who ‘live and die on the streets’. Was I not being arrogant to pray for an upcoming test or interview when god was allowing children to die? Does he care more about the small details of my life than he does about the very existence of children? This surely could not be the case. God loves the innocent and the guilty. A child must be the most innocent of all.

I began scouring the internet for answers. I read all the apologetic books that were assembled on my book shelf and I prayed about it but nothing that I examined seemed to answer the apparent inconsistency. How can a loving god who promised to meet our needs, fail to meet the needs of countless innocent infants and children? Why is god so nonchalant about helping anybody? We could certainly use another miracle consisting of some bread and fish to help feed the hungry but nothing comes in the form of a miracle. Occasionally, a group of compassionate individuals will meet the needs of these unfortunate children but it’s often far too late.

In the end, the only rational explanation is that god is absent from our day to day lives. If there is a god, he doesn’t take a front row seat in protecting us or intervening on our behalf when things get rough. This applies to Christians and nonbelievers alike.

About Me

I have recently deconverted from theism to an atheism (default) position. I believe that this is the most honest position to maintain as it admits that no one can know for certain that god(s) exist. I confirm that atheism is not a world view, its a rejection of theistic claims based on a lack of evidence. The transition started in the latter part of 2009 with the help of a fellow blogger, A-Unicornist via facebook interaction. Previously, I was a hardcore conservative, evangelical that frequented Baptist and charismatic denominational churches. I encourage discussion on my blog and openly admit that I do not have all the answers and love to learn new things from anyone willing to teach me. Having said that, I do enjoy some fairly opinionated views on many topics so some controversy may arise.
The title, atheist in the closet refers to the fact that most of my family is unaware of the change with the exception of, somewhat regrettably, my wife. She snooped in on a quasi debate I was having with a soon to be NT scholar and as a result, I told her that I was playing "Devils Advocate". Coincedentally, that was going to be the title of my blog but I have since changed it.